Timelines
Throughout all of the most popular horror film franchises, perhaps none has a “timeline” more baffling than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s. But for the sake of all curious horror fans, I’m taking the task upon myself to map out the series, talking about each film’s place in the franchise. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Being the first movie in the series, you could say that this is where the timeline is least confusing. Though it doesn’t reveal an exact date, the film is set in the “present day” of the time, in the mid 1970s. The narration in the beginning of the sequel subsequently reveals that this film takes place in the year 1973. After reports of vandalism and grave-robbing concerning the grave of her grandfather, Sally Hardesty, her brother, and three friends travel deep into rural Texas. On the way, they pick up a strange hitchhiker who really freaks them out. It turns out, he’s a part of the cannibalistic Sawyer family living nearby, which they’ll all learn soon enough. One by one, the hitchhiker’s brother Leatherface murders the group, leaving only young Sally left. Chasing her onto the road, she just barely escapes with her life by jumping into the truck bed of a passing motorist. But it’s clear from the look on her face that she will likely never be sane again. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986) Like how the original took place in the “present day” of the mid 70s, the same can be said for the sequel. TCM 2 takes place in 1986, the year it was released, and 13 years after the events of the first movie. According to the opening narration, Sally became catatonic shortly after her rescue from the bloody farmhouse in the original. It also states that authorities were never able to locate the family or the farm, leaving the surviving family members alive and well. After Leatherface murders two teens on a Texas highway, Sally’s uncle and Texas Ranger “Lefty” Enright arrives to investigate. To find more information, Lefty convinces the local radio DJs to help with his search for the killers. But Leatherface and his family don’t take to it kindly, bringing the attack straight to the station. One of the DJs, Stretch, is taken to where the Sawyers have been staying — an abandoned carnival ground. Lefty and most of the surviving Sawyers (including Leatherface) are killed by a grenade, with Stretch becoming the final survivor after killing Chop-top (the hitchhiker’s twin brother). Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) Moving on to the third film in the series is when things start to get much more confusing. Dubbed Leatherface, the third TCM film is one of the earlier examples of a horror “rebootquel”. Because the entire Sawyer family had died at the end of TCM 2, continuing the series was only possible to do as a reboot. What this means is that TCM 3 is a sequel to the 1974 film. While incorporating the Leatherface character, the story is a complete re-imagining of the series, featuring all new family members. Still, the film includes an opening narration mentioning the events of the first film, this time saying that one of the Sawyers was caught and executed for the crimes and that another was sent to the insane asylum. It seems that what we have, then, is an alternate timeline, completely ignoring the second film while adapting elements of the first one. But in this version of the plot, Leatherface has moved on to stay with other family members elsewhere who are apparently just as sadistic. While the year isn’t explicitly stated in the film, it’s presumably the present day, setting it in or around 1990. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1997) The previous film started to make the waters of this timeline much murkier, sure. This film does the same. It is also a direct sequel to the original film. The text at the beginning says that after the 1973 chainsaw massacre, none of the family members were ever apprehended (retconning the narration of TCM 3). It also doesn’t mention Stretch killing off the Sawyer family at the end of TCM 2. I guess like the previous film, it’s a direct sequel to the original. But it still requires changing the elements of the original film, right down to the little things — such as having this family be called the “Slaughters” instead of the “Sawyers”. In any case, this film’s story is set in 1995. In this odd flick, a group of high-schoolers fresh out of the prom wind up at Leatherface’s family home. Obviously, it’s not long before most of them wind up murdered on the property. The ending reveals that there’s a much bigger picture as Leatherface and the Slaughters are actually a part of the Illuminati. The film is generally regarded by most as a terrible movie, even by its stars Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger. At the time, it seemed to certainly spell the end of the franchise, as hardly anyone wanted to see a follow-up to this film. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) One could make the argument that almost every sequel in this series has been a reboot. The only one you can actually link to the original is the second film. Parts 3 and 4 were definitely reboots, though at that time, they were still pretending to be sequels — nobody was throwing that word “reboot” around just yet. By 2003, however, the TCM franchise finally embraced its natural tendency to reboot itself. The 2003 reboot completely disregards every previous film in the series, starting completely fresh with a new canon. This time, a new group of five youths wind up at Leatherface’s family farm, with all but one winding up butchered at the hands of the family. The film lists the date of this story as taking place on August 18, 1973. While the word “reboot” makes many horror fans sigh, it was definitely necessary for this franchise. You know, considering any sense of continuity by this point had been totally destroyed. This film embraces the idea of presenting its own self-contained story, and it works out well. Of course, the con for this reboot being successful was that it ushered in a flood of other horror movie remakes along with it. And let’s just say the results vary quite a bit. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) Because the 2003 reboot had a budget of less than $10 million and pulled in over $100 million at the box office, New Line was quick to order another film. But with the way the first one ended, continuing with a sequel would have been rather difficult. So for the first time in the series, a prequel was conceived, this time setting the film before the events of the last film. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning has an opening narration that provides the loose time period of 1969 to 1973 as the setting. The opening events of the film show Leatherface as a baby being adopted in 1939, then fast forwarding 30 years later to 1969. That’s when Leatherface’s brother assumes the identity of the local sheriff after killing him. Sometime soon after, the events of this film take place (with the kids arriving to the home). Though it doesn’t say when, meaning it could be anywhere between ’69 to ’73 when these killings start. The problem with prequels is that the endings can never surprise you. Of course, we knew that Leatherface and his family had to get away with the murders in this film to go on to commit the killings in the prior film. Possibly, that played a reason into the low box office performance of this entry, leading to TCM going back on the shelf. Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013) The 2013 film Texas Chainsaw 3D is… well, both a sequel and a reboot, I suppose. It’s described as a “sequel” to the original 1974 film by Tobe Hooper, but it ignores The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2. This creates another alternate timeline branching off of the original film, disregarding every other film in the series. After the events in 1973, the Sawyer farmhouse was burned down by vigilantes, presumably killing off every single family member left. The timeline then fast forwards to the present day, which would be 2013 in this movie’s case. Our story begins with a girl named Heather receiving a notice that she is to collect a large inheritance. Unbeknownst to her, that family also includes Leatherface. Heather sees her friends start to get killed off by Leatherface (who didn’t die after all), but learns that the local townsfolk are perhaps just as crazy. The ending of this film opens up a whole other can of worms but the series gave itself the problem of making a sequel very difficult to do, given the way this film ends. Leatherface (2017) This film is a prequel to the 1974 original film by Hooper. While that movie has multiple timelines branching out from it, this will be using the Texas Chainsaw 3D timeline. It will focus on Leatherface as a teenager busting out of the psych ward, meaning it will take place in 1955. The film ends with the Sawyers getting away with their crimes and has Leatherface make a mask out of flesh and applying lipstick. This is the lady mask that he mostly wears in the first film.